‘Our babies are dying’: Wilmington City Council member urges creation of violence prevention office

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A Wilmington City Council member is calling for funding for an Office of Violence Prevention after two men were killed and a 9-year-old girl was injured in two shootings earlier this month.

Councilwoman Shané Darby addressed what she said is a crisis situation in a news conference Wednesday morning. She said city lawmakers did not fight hard enough to expand the current gun violence prevention program in the fiscal year 2026 budget.

“This is not just violence. This is a policy failure. This is political neglect,” she said. “When you look at a budget, you see what your government cares about. While our streets are bleeding, dollars are drying up, and that is unacceptable.”

Darby said she also wants the city to permanently fund a community response team that would be trained to deescalate conflicts, respond to trauma and prevent violence. She said she also wants continuing funding to expand the Community Public Safety Initiative, which delivers services to residents in high crime areas. It’s currently restricted to two locations in the city and paid for using pandemic dollars that will go away at the end of 2026.

Wilmington community activist Jackie Kinard said she has lost several members of her family to gun violence, including two sons, a stepson and two cousins. She said she was concerned about violence escalating when schools let out for the year and the weather starts heating up.

“Our babies are dying. Our legacy is being wiped out,” she said. “It is our Black and brown children. They slap these juveniles on the wrist and you send them back out here to do more murders.”

Gov. Matt Meyer created a statewide Gun Violence Prevention Office earlier this month.

The Office of Violence Prevention proposed by Darby would include rapid response teams for victims and families, street outreach teams, a central database and public releases of information. She said she plans to draft resolutions and ordinances in the coming weeks.

Darby said she is scheduled to meet with top staff from Mayor John Carney’s office Thursday. But it’s unclear what kind of support she has for her ideas. The only city council member to attend the news conference was Council President Ernest “Trippi” Congo. Darby said Wilmington Police Chief Wilfredo Campos abruptly canceled Wednesday morning after committing to attend. Carney did not attend the event.

Darby said she hopes to harness public pressure to get city officials to approve the funding for her proposals.

“I want the city council and I want the administration to look you guys in the face and tell you, no, they’re not going to fund or codify the Office of Violence Prevention,” she said. “I want them to look you in the face, city council and administration, and I want them to say ‘no’ to you about a community response team.”

Communications staff for Campos did not answer why the chief canceled his appearance at the event.

A statement from Carney’s office pointed to programs such as the Partners in Care Co-Responder Program, which pairs trained mental health clinicians with police officers, who respond as a team to service calls. That started last year as a pilot program, but has been made permanent. His office said it received $125,000 in the fiscal 2026 budget. It also highlighted the work of the Community Public Safety Initiative.

The statement said that work has led to a 47% decrease in shooting incidents so far this year compared with the same period last year.

“We look forward to continuing to make progress by further reducing crime and making our city safer for all of our residents,” Carney’s office said. “This is best accomplished by working together with members of city council and residents across the city of Wilmington.”

Murders are up in recent weeks, with three happening in the past 28 days compared with the same time period last year, when there was one. There’s been six so far this year, one more than this time last year.

Murders rose 79% in the city of Wilmington in 2024, with 25 killings compared to 14 the year before, according to crime data released by the mayor’s office and the Wilmington Police Department.

This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.